christmas clothes
by what a lovely way to burn
Summary: — "this isn't exactly a conversation we should have in the middle of a grocery store." nearly a year after breaking up, ginny and harry bump into one another at the store and one thing leads to another.


_**author's notes:**_ _written for hogwarts (challenges and assignments). prompt(s) will be at the bottom_.

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 **christmas clothes**

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If you'd asked Ginny Weasley a year ago, she never would have guessed that she'd be shopping for the ingredients to make a Christmas dinner for one this year. She would have thought that she would be celebrating with her then boyfriend, Harry Potter.

 _How things changed in a few months_ , she thought as she pushed her cart into the Muggle supermarket. Hermione had introduced her to the wonders of shopping the Muggle way — much less of a hassle than Wizarding markets — and Ginny had never looked back since. She pulled a list of what she needed and studied it as she shoved her cart ahead of her with one hand.

"Oomph! Hey, watch where you're going with that thi — _Ginny_?"

Ginny looked up and pinched herself to make sure she wasn't dreaming. Her nails dug firmly into her skin and convinced her that the boy — _man_ , her brain corrected — before her was real. "Harry? What're you doing here?"

Her ex ran a hand through his hair, which Ginny realised with a pang was just as messy as it had been last time she'd seen him nearly a year ago. "Shopping," he said. "You?"

She smiled. "Looking for clothes."

Harry's lips twitched, and he threw his head back and laughed. It was deeper, and made it very clear that Harry was no longer the teen she'd left just after the war.

They fell in step together and chatted normally. Harry was an Auror-in-training, and glad that Kingsley was the one training him, because everyone else treated him like The Saviour, when all he really wanted to do was pass his finals and become a full-fledged Auror without using his position in the Wizarding world to get there.

"Kingsley doesn't take it easy on me," he concluded as they stopped by the ice cream section. "And that's why I really like training under him."

"Mm," Ginny hummed as she opened the freezer door and picked out three gallon cartons of chocolate ice cream. "What?" she asked defensively when Harry eyed the cartons she placed in the cart.

"Lonely Christmas?" Harry teased gently.

"Something like that," she admitted, a bit bitterly.

"Hey." Harry stopped pushing his cart and faced her. "It's only been a year, Gin. Don't tell me you expected your feelings to change in that amount of time."

"What's that supposed to mean? That I'm still that little girl who fancied herself madly in love with you?"

"No! I didn't mean it like that. It's just —" Harry ran a hand through his hair again "— I'm not explaining this very well, but it's just, well...how did you expect your feelings to change in barely a year when — when mine haven't?"

Ginny froze. "What?"

"Come on," he said. "Let's check out and go back to my place. This isn't exactly a conversation we should have in the middle of a grocery store."

•

"What was that back there?" Ginny asked the moment the door of Harry's flat closed behind them.

Harry didn't respond. Ginny took the opportunity to glance around. The flat was oddly neat; it didn't look at all like any of her brother's rooms — nor did it smell like them. It was sparsely, yet tastefully, furnished. Ginny followed Harry into the kitchen and leaned against the breakfast bar counter in the middle of the room, watching as he began methodically putting groceries away in cupboards.

"Why did you say what you did?" she pressed, a bit put out by the fact that Harry wasn't answering her. She deserved to know — _he_ was the one who'd blurted that he still loved her!

Harry stopped and turned to face her. When he spoke, his voice was low and more solemn than Ginny had ever heard from him. "Did you truly think my feelings would change in less than a year when I know for a fact yours haven't?"

"How do you know mine haven't?" Ginny challenged. "How do you know that I don't have to leave because I'm supposed to be meeting my fiancé in ten minutes?"

"I know," said Harry, "because I know _you_."

•

Ginny invited Harry over for Christmas dinner.

He showed up holding a green bean casserole and a large bouquet of colourful wildflowers. "I know you don't care for roses," he explained as he dug around in a cupboard and pulled out a vase. He filled it with water, stuck the bouquet of flowers in it, and set it on the elaborately-set dining room table.

"Well...thank you," said Ginny, a bit bemused. "They're beautiful. But how did you remember that I don't like roses? I'm pretty sure I word-vomited that tidbit of information in my first year when I was either tongue-tied or babbling around you."

Harry laughed, Ginny joining in a moment later.

"Come on." She waved him into the kitchen. "Dinner's almost ready."

•

As so many things lead to another, Christmas dinner led to New Year's dinner which led to them resolving to spend more time with one another in the new year to see if a year apart had made a difference with _them_.

It did.

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 _word count: 863_

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 **prompts**

assignment 10: muggle music — "last christmas" task two — write about someone running into an ex partner

winter funfair: southern hogwarts funfair — present wrapping station — wrapping paper — (object) flowers


End file.
